WaveGuide

As urban centers become congested with heavy mobile data traffic, building new, smaller cells to off load some of that traffic is becoming commonplace in making the network flow transparent to the end user. However, smaller cells create a myriad of issues, such as increased leasing costs, adhering to municipality codes for aesthetically pleasing radios, and overcrowded towers, not to mention power and cost issues. Thus, the drum for quality, capacity, and spectral efficiency beats louder each day.

Well here we are again. Another calendar year drawing to an end, winter and the holiday season are just around the corner and the Journal staff is busy putting the wraps on 2013 and preparing for next year. With much of our editorial already lined up for the first quarter, the industry has once again proved that RF/microwave technology and applications continue to evolve rapidly. The 2014 outlook looks good for component manufacturers addressing advanced radar and communication systems.

I write this while basking in the glory of the recent Red Sox World Series game 6 victory over the St Louis Cardinals. I was one of the 38,477 fortunate fans in Fenway Park to witness the Sox’ third World Championship in ten years and it was truly an amazing experience. It had been 95 years since the Red Sox last won the series at Fenway and it was a special night indeed. Congratulations to all of Red Sox Nation, and to non-Sox fans, “there’s always next year”.

Qualcomm introduced the RF360 product seven months ago, and people are still asking me for insight into what it means. Are Skyworks and RFMD in trouble? What will Intel and Mediatek do? Is CMOS performance good enough?

Later this month, Microwave Journal Publisher, Carl Sheffres and I will be travelling to Shanghai and Beijing where we will be meeting with many RF/microwave engineers and marketing professionals. The purpose of our trip will be to learn about the state of the industry in China from the perspective of local microwave component vendors and their customers. This exchange is an important step in identifying the authors and topics that will appear in future issues of Microwave Journal China. We will also be recruiting speakers, topics and sponsors/exhibitors for next year’s EDI CON event which will be held April 8-10, 2014 at the Beijing International Convention Center (BICC).

Pardon my play on the famous American Revolution phrase in honor of the recent July 4th holiday. It does allow me to segue into the upcoming “Military Microwaves” supplement, which will be distributed with the August issue of Microwave Journal and features a cover story by Technical Editor Pat Hindle titled “UAV’s Unleashed.” This article takes a look at the current state of unmanned autonomous vehicles (often referred to as “drones”), the opportunities for the RF/microwave industry and some future directions. This annual supplement is always our most popular with advertisers and has the added advantage of bonus distribution at the MILCOM and EuMW events. The deadline to reserve ad space is July 10th.

Historically, the long haul market has not created much excitement – the big iron radios were used most often in project based deals, placed at aggregation points towards the core of the network due to their high power and high capacity. Although they were not used as much as short haul radios, their price points were much higher, starting at around $12,000 - $15,000. As packet based protocols and higher levels of capacity became the de facto requirement for short haul microwave radios, long haul radios followed suit, increasing capacity and adding Ethernet services either through packet or hybrid platforms.